Participatory Budgeting in Urban Planning: A Mechanism for Prioritizing Public Space Development Projects

Аннотация

Participatory budgeting is a way for citizens to be involved in decisions about their city. It helps to understand what people need and to allocate public money to projects that improve public spaces and local infrastructure. Despite its growing adoption in digitally mediated environments, empirical evidence on performance dynamics and measurable social outcomes remains limited, particularly in post-Soviet urban contexts where institutional legacies and administrative cultures shape participatory practices in distinct ways.

This study addresses this gap through a systematic analysis of project-level data from Almaty's official open participatory budgeting platform. Using descriptive statistical analysis and pattern identification across project categories, voting behaviour, budget distribution, district-level participation rates, and implementation status, we examine citizen participation intensity, spatial prioritisation trends, and resource allocation mechanisms within the municipal governance framework.

The findings reveal structural imbalances in project selection, uneven participation across districts, and procedural inefficiencies in budget management that affect implementation timelines. Based on these results, the study formulates evidence-based recommendations to improve transparency, participation equity, spatial inclusiveness, and institutional effectiveness in municipal participatory budgeting practices.